April's Tag is a Birthday Card

Today's birthday card is gonna be a bit late for my brother-in-law, but on time (finally) for Tim Holtz'  12 Tags of 2012 for April.  I decided to make this into a dual purpose card, since I had a birthday to fulfill. 

I followed Tim's blog tutorial with a few stylistic changes based on the materials I had on hand:

TH Distressed Frame embossing folder
TH Reflections script stamp
TH Lost & Found flying birds stamp
TH Shabby French bird stamp (fussy cut - which is just another name for spending a lot of time cutting something out  =)
grungeboard bookplate & keyhole
TH trimmings inked w/frayed burlap & peeled paint
7 Gypsies key
Distress Inks:  frayed burlap, scattered straw, peeled paint, stormy sky, & vintage photo
Archival Ink: black, cobalt
Jute, stapled with TH tiny attacher
variety of letter rub-ons

And here's a Tip about shadowing rub-ons:  adhere rub-on to cardstock, then go over it carefully with an inked blending tool after it's secure -- this will give a shadowed look to your rub-on, as the overflow material on the rub-on acts as a natural resist.  In my case I used white cardstock then went over it with stormy sky & frayed burlap.  You can see where the letters have a white shadowed effect.  Pretty cool, eh?

Hope you're having a fabulous day!  Lisa